That's because one day an exec somewhere woke up and realized that all those options cost more money, execs usually suck.
>> ^moodonia:

Any news on the gameplay view?
You know how GTA3, Vice City, S.A. were all centered behind the player but in IV it was kinda "over the shoulder". Ruined the game for me. IS V going to be the same?
Funny how old games gave you a ton of options like that but modern ones are more restrictive for some reason.

Any news on the gameplay view?

You know how GTA3, Vice City, S.A. were all centered behind the player but in IV it was kinda "over the shoulder". Ruined the game for me. IS V going to be the same?

Funny how old games gave you a ton of options like that but modern ones are more restrictive for some reason.

GTA3 in real life.

>> ^d00kie:

Minecraft has always struck me as a 3D and First Person version of Dwarf Fortress (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/) (For a more user-friendly version of DF i'd suggest a tileset such as the Phoebus set which should be available here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57557.0) which I'd also strongly recommend.
That said, Dwarf Fortress does have a difficulty curve similar to a brick wall, but with a bit of persistence it's really very rewarding, and the sheer freedom offered is quite astounding. Options range from simple fortress defence, through to training Magmanauts to search volcanos, to fully self-aware fortresses using the highest standard of dwarf-puting!
While I don't know the scale of the production team for Minecraft, I have to admit that I've always been impressed with DF especially as the entire production team is one bloke and his cat...
Either way, I'm glad that Minecraft has recaptured people's imaginations to start puttering around in an environment where virtually anything is possible. Muchos Kudos to them all.


Dwarf Fortress is the shit! Very apt to compare it to Minecraft. Minecraft is to Dwarf Fortress, as Fallout is to Fallout 3 (or GTA was to GTA3). It's not a perfect comparison, but that's the closest I can think of off the top of my head.

I've enjoyed Rockstar / GTA games since GTA3. But to me, the "story" that takes some approximate amount of time to meander through has never been the point of the games. In fact, my biggest gripe with the GTA series has been that I usually have to force myself to suffer through the pointless drivel that is the story in order to open up the map in its entirety.

Sandbox games have never been extremely popular, which seems unfortunate to my tastes. And interestingly enough, the games that I have enjoyed the sandbox aspects of the most are often games that bridge that popularity / audience gap by including a story or other traditional gameplay elements. The GTA series has a storyline, and central plot-oriented missions. Ultima games had storylines and character-development goals. So I guess I'm happy that those are included in the games, if only because it will make them appeal to a broader audience and increase the chances of more games being released with the same design priciples; even if I tend to completely ignore those elements myself.

Anyway, it was interesting to hear Yatzee criticize the sandbox component of the game, which is exactly what would sell the game for me. Presumably he could do the opposite of what I would do with the game, and ignore the sandbox elements to play through the story... To each his own I guess.

I was thinking the same thing, but after a bit of research I believe we're remembering the "Beast GTS", which was essentially a Dodge Viper...on which GTA3 and GTA4 Banshees were based. (In Vice City, the Banshee was modeled after a Chevrolet Corvette.) So it was there in GTA 1, just called something different.

LOTS of nitpicking, and although I almost always agree with Yahtzee, I'd have to disagree with quite a few of his points.

He's right about the turning, but only because it's a rough transition after so many years of GTA car-turning being so loose and arcadey. This is more realistic, but also a bit stiff. Which leads me to my next point.

I think Yahtzee should rethink his point about games trying to become too realistic over arcade-style. All of the GTA3 games had very arcade-like reactions and physics to it. Take for example, the headshot, making the head disappear, and in it's place a stream of blood shooting straight upwards for several feet from the neck, before the body just falls over. Now, that's funny at first, but after so much of that, it got a bit too cartoony, and I was hoping for a more 'realistic' reaction. Now look at GTA4's physics. They're jaw-dropping. When you hit somebody with a car, they act so accordingly, thanks to the Euphoria physics engine (basically a much smarter, and more natural ragdoll type of physics). I mean, hell, the cars had Euphoria as well. When you hit another car hard enough, the driver dies from the impact, and his face plants into the steering wheel, leaving the car horn blaring continuously. Little details like that also make it really cool. Is Yahtzee honestly saying he'd rather a cartoon reaction over something so impressive as the Euphoria physics?

And the coloring of the city was not brown and grey. Only during cloudy/rainy/foggy days were they greyish/blue, and some point of the day was the city brown. Other than that, I was absolutely AMAZED with how pretty the daytime was. Noon-time actually looked like noon, with a natural looking sun beating down on the sidewalk and cars, etc. Dawn looks like dawn, and so forth.

All in all, he seemed to have liked it. I was a skeptic of GTA4 before I got it, and I honestly was THAT impressed with it, that I'll argue in it's defense against one of my all-time favorite reviewers. Different strokes for different folks, but I think sometimes people should take a step back from their nit-picking, and appreciate what I'd like to consider real quality. I mean, people love ripping on bad games, and rightly so. But I think we as gamers have become somewhat spoiled in the sense that we feel we should rip apart absolutely everything. I'm not directing this towards Yahtzee specifically, but sometimes it just seems that people will have a problem with something just for the sake of having something to complain about to the point of missing the entire point of healthy criticism. This game wasn't perfect, but it's obvious that instead of putting out much of the same, they came together and made something if good quality, and I think people should at least acknowledge that. Whew, sorry about that.

But he's absolutely r ight about one thing. What the hell was Rockstar thinking when they made trees the only thing in the whole game completely indestructible? You can run through newspaper stands. You can bulldoze straight through trash-cans, leaving trash littered in it's path, etc etc etc....and then smash straight into a tree without it budging an inch. The effect of flying through your windshield is really awesome though .

Just for reference, i corrupted my save game files in PC-GTA3+ through over-using Alt+F4..Several times.

I still do it, but it happens.

Picking a genre is tough, because I like variety.

Some favorites.

GTA3
Half-Life 2
Oddworld: Stranger
Jet Set Radio Future
Halo 3 (for the multiplayer)
Starcraft.
FF7
Rollercoaster Tycoon

Odd though, that they'd snuff GTA3 for a little known game, but allow Wolf3D to eclipse Catacombs3D and Ultima Underworld. Meh, not like it's CNN reporting but a bit of consistancy would be nice.

That's Kyle McLachlan playing "Karl Heinz". This is right around the time he was on Twin Peaks, which is probably why he was hosting.

Younger people (like me) would know him as Donald Love in GTA3, Trey MacDougal in Sex in the City, and the nutso Orson Hodge in Desperate Housewives.

With graphics quality worse than I ever recalled seeing in even the first GTA3 title...

There are more conveniently placed ramps in this town then in GTA3.

This has gone to be one of the most innovative displays of game design I have seen since GTA3. Seminal stuff.